Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home 		English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Follow suit   /fˈɑloʊ sut/   Listen
noun
Suit  n.  
1.
The act of following or pursuing, as game; pursuit. (Obs.)
2.
The act of suing; the process by which one endeavors to gain an end or an object; an attempt to attain a certain result; pursuit; endeavor. "Thenceforth the suit of earthly conquest shone."
3.
The act of wooing in love; the solicitation of a woman in marriage; courtship. "Rebate your loves, each rival suit suspend, Till this funereal web my labors end."
4.
(Law) The attempt to gain an end by legal process; an action or process for the recovery of a right or claim; legal application to a court for justice; prosecution of right before any tribunal; as, a civil suit; a criminal suit; a suit in chancery. "I arrest thee at the suit of Count Orsino." "In England the several suits, or remedial instruments of justice, are distinguished into three kinds actions personal, real, and mixed."
5.
That which follows as a retinue; a company of attendants or followers; the assembly of persons who attend upon a prince, magistrate, or other person of distinction.
6.
Things that follow in a series or succession; the individual objects, collectively considered, which constitute a series, as of rooms, buildings, compositions, etc.; often written suite.
7.
A number of things used together, and generally necessary to be united in order to answer their purpose; a number of things ordinarily classed or used together; a set; as, a suit of curtains; a suit of armor; a suit of clothes; a three-piece business suit. "Two rogues in buckram suits."
8.
(Playing Cards) One of the four sets of cards which constitute a pack; each set consisting of thirteen cards bearing a particular emblem, as hearts, spades, clubs, or diamonds; also, the members of each such suit held by a player in certain games, such as bridge; as, hearts were her long suit. "To deal and shuffle, to divide and sort Her mingled suits and sequences."
9.
Regular order; succession. (Obs.) "Every five and thirty years the same kind and suit of weather comes again."
10.
Hence: (derived from def 7) Someone who dresses in a business suit, as contrasted with more informal attire; specifically, A person, such as business executive, or government official, who is apt to view a situation formalistically, bureaucratically, or according to formal procedural criteria; used derogatively for one who is inflexible, esp. when a more humanistic or imaginative approach would be appropriate.
Out of suits, having no correspondence. (Obs.)
Suit and service (Feudal Law), the duty of feudatories to attend the courts of their lords or superiors in time of peace, and in war to follow them and do military service; called also suit service.
Suit broker, one who made a trade of obtaining the suits of petitioners at court. (Obs.)
Suit court (O. Eng. Law), the court in which tenants owe attendance to their lord.
Suit covenant (O. Eng. Law), a covenant to sue at a certain court.
Suit custom (Law), a service which is owed from time immemorial.
Suit service. (Feudal Law) See Suit and service, above.
To bring suit. (Law)
(a)
To bring secta, followers or witnesses, to prove the plaintiff's demand. (Obs.)
(b)
In modern usage, to institute an action.
To follow suit.
(a)
(Card Playing) See under Follow, v. t.
(b)
To mimic the action of another person; to perform an action similar to what has preceded; as, when she walked in, John left the room and his wife followed suit.
long suit
(a)
(Card Playing) the suit (8) of which a player has the largest number of cards in his hand; as, his long suit was clubs, but his partner insisted on making hearts trumps.. Hence: (fig.) that quality or capability which is a person's best asset; as, we could see from the mess in his room that neatness was not his long suit.
strong suit same as long suit, (b). "I think our strong suit is that we can score from both the perimeter and the post." "Rigid ideological consistency has never been a strong suit of the Whole Earth Catalogue."


verb
Follow  v. t.  (past & past part. followed; pres. part. following)  
1.
To go or come after; to move behind in the same path or direction; hence, to go with (a leader, guide, etc.); to accompany; to attend. " It waves me forth again; I'll follow it."
2.
To endeavor to overtake; to go in pursuit of; to chase; to pursue; to prosecute. " I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them."
3.
To accept as authority; to adopt the opinions of; to obey; to yield to; to take as a rule of action; as, to follow good advice. "Approve the best, and follow what I approve". "Follow peace with all men." " It is most agreeable to some men to follow their reason; and to others to follow their appetites."
4.
To copy after; to take as an example. " We had rather follow the perfections of them whom we like not, than in defects resemble them whom we love."
5.
To succeed in order of time, rank, or office.
6.
To result from, as an effect from a cause, or an inference from a premise.
7.
To watch, as a receding object; to keep the eyes fixed upon while in motion; to keep the mind upon while in progress, as a speech, musical performance, etc.; also, to keep up with; to understand the meaning, connection, or force of, as of a course of thought or argument. "He followed with his eyes the flitting shade."
8.
To walk in, as a road or course; to attend upon closely, as a profession or calling. "O, had I but followed the arts!" "O Antony! I have followed thee to this."
Follow board (Founding), a board on which the pattern and the flask lie while the sand is rammed into the flask.
To follow the hounds, to hunt with dogs.
To follow suit (Card Playing), to play a card of the same suit as the leading card; hence, colloquially, to follow an example set.
To follow up, to pursue indefatigably.
Synonyms: Syn.- To pursue; chase; go after; attend; accompany; succeed; imitate; copy; embrace; maintain. - To Follow, Pursue. To follow (v.t.) denotes simply to go after; to pursue denotes to follow with earnestness, and with a view to attain some definite object; as, a hound pursues the deer. So a person follows a companion whom he wishes to overtake on a journey; the officers of justice pursue a felon who has escaped from prison.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words


Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar




"Follow suit" Quotes from Famous Books



... publication! The gift was, indeed, a surprise, total strangers as we are personally to his Grace and without any application or reminder, directly or indirectly, beyond the public appeal in our last, suggested by similar kindness on the part of two esteemed members of the Hierarchy! Will not others follow suit? What if our every opinion is not endorsed, so long as faith and morals are safe in our hands, and promoted in quarters never reached before by the Catholic press. Let it be remembered that the sphere ...
— Donahoe's Magazine, Volume 15, No. 2, February 1886 • Various
... of fashion, thank God! Would that the old sort of antiquaries, who lose their time, and cause others to lose theirs also, in discussing idle speculations, might follow suit. History requires facts,—these facts, proofs. These proofs are not to be found in the few works of the travellers that have hastily visited the monuments that strew the soil of Central America, Mexico and Peru, and given of them descriptions more or less accurate—very often erroneous—with ...
— The Mayas, the Sources of Their History / Dr. Le Plongeon in Yucatan, His Account of Discoveries • Stephen Salisbury, Jr.
... their boats since last they took a long cruise, for they knew how comfortable such a cover must prove in time of stress and foul weather. But George, believing that to do this would keep his boat out of the speed class, had declined to follow suit, using a tent instead, which was fastened to a ridge pole stretched at night-time fore and aft at a certain height ...
— Motor Boat Boys Down the Coast - or Through Storm and Stress to Florida • Louis Arundel
... as the hero, who is French and heroic, both of them displaying the same unfortunate tendency to be carried off captive by the other side and to indulge in small talk when they should be most splendid. And the majority of the other figures follow suit. On the face of it the volume is stuffed with all the material of melodrama; but somehow the authoress seems to strive after effects that don't come naturally to her. What does come naturally to her is seen in a background ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 156, May 7, 1919. • Various
... bestowed upon Dioneo a few words of gentle reprehension with intent to admonish him that such stories were not to be told among ladies. The queen then turned to Fiammetta, who was seated on the grass at her side, and bade her follow suit and Fiammetta with a gay ...
— The Decameron, Volume I • Giovanni Boccaccio
... knowing enough,' retorted Mr Boffin, with a sly look, 'to have found out that our connexion's at an end, eh? But you can't get beforehand with me. Look at this in my hand. This is your pay, on your discharge. You can only follow suit. You can't deprive me of the lead. Let's have no pretending that you ...
— Our Mutual Friend • Charles Dickens
... impossible to forget them for even a few minutes. People would become abstracted while they talked, and would stand staring into space; suddenly, in the midst of a crowd, a woman would bury her face in her hands and burst into tears, and then all the others would follow suit. ...
— King Coal - A Novel • Upton Sinclair
... slug, and with such penetration that it will go through a two-inch plank. It is a trick I learned from hunters, and, unless your guns are choke-bore, in which case it might burst the barrel, I advise you to follow suit." Finding they had brought straight-bored guns, they arranged their cartridges similarly, and set out in the direction in which the winged lizards or dragons ...
— A Journey in Other Worlds • J. J. Astor
... this resolution into a more daring and dangerous form. They propose boldly and at once to acknowledge the Southern Confederacy and demand that the Northwest dissolve all further relations with New England. When they have passed this measure in Indiana, they expect Ohio and Illinois to follow suit. ...
— The Southerner - A Romance of the Real Lincoln • Thomas Dixon


Copyright © 2025 Dictionary One.com